Women's Basketball Plays Host to Utah Valley on Tuesday in First Home Game

Nov 19, 2012

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The Sacramento State women's basketball team will make its home debut for the 2012-13 season on Tuesday when the Hornets play host to Utah Valley in a doubleheader with the men's basketball game against UC Davis.

The doubleheader starts at 5 p.m. with the women's game versus Utah Valley and the men's game against UC Davis follows at 7:35 p.m. Fans can see both games with the purchase of just one ticket.

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SACRAMENTO STATE BREAKDOWN
Record: 1-2, 0-0 Big Sky
All-Time Div. I (1991-92) Series: 0-0
Last Meeting: This is the first meeting between the two schools.
Notable: Sacramento State won its first game of the season last weekend, 79-72, at CSU Bakersfield. Fantasia Hilliard had a career-high 11 assists to go with a game-high 18 points.

UTAH VALLEY BREAKDOWN
Record: 1-3, 0-0 Great West
Notable: Utah Valley has dropped two games on its current California road trip. The Wolverines lost at San Jose State, 81-72, on Thursday before falling, 80-67, at Santa Clara on Saturday. Senior forward Sammie Jensen is averaging a team-high 19.8 points and 13.3 rebounds.

KUHNS ON RECORD PACEKylie Kuhns has 922 career rebounds and is just nine away from tying Heidi Carroll's school record of 931 career rebounds. Kuhns became the 10th player in school history to reach 1,000 career points when she eclipsed the milestone against EWU on Feb. 4 last season. She has the chance to become the first player, however, to reach 1,000 career rebounds.

RECORD LOW THREE-POINTERS
Sacramento State took just nine three-pointers in its 79-72 win at CSU Bakersfield on Friday, by far the fewest since Jamie Craighead took over as head coach. The Hornets' previous low for three-point attempts in a game was 16, twice last season and once in 2010-11. Sacramento State went 5-for-9 from three-point range versus the Roadrunners but attempted 25 three-pointers in each on its first two games.

BALANCED SCORING
Sacramento State has six players scoring between nine and 15 points per game this season. Starters Alle Moreno (14.7), Fantasia Hilliard (13.7) and Kylie Kuhns (10.0) and reserve forward Megan Kritscher (10.7) are all above 10 points per game while Sadie Clements (9.3) and Se'nyce Parrish (9.7) are above nine. Last year the Hornets had three players average nine-or-more points per game.

HILLIARD'S CAREER NIGHT
The reigning Big Sky Conference freshman of the year tallied a career-high 11 assists in her second career double-double on Friday at CSU Bakersfield. Hilliard matched Alle Moreno's game-high 18 points as well. The Sacramento native hit 3-of-4 free throws in the final minute to ice the game. Hilliard is shooting .448 from the field this season.

KRITSCHER SHINES IN EARLY GOING
Forward Megan Kritscher has seen her role expand this season and is averaging 10.7 points and 5.7 rebounds per game in 20 minutes per game. Last season the UC Santa Barbara transfer played 8.5 minutes per game in 31 contests and averaged 3.3 points and 2.5 rebounds. The 6-foot-4 Woodland, Calif., native is the tallest player in program history.

BREAKING THE STREAK
In each of its first three seasons under head coach Jamie Craighead, Sacramento State started out 0-3 until this year, as the Hornets improved to 1-2 with thier win at CSU Bakersfield on Friday. While one was broken, another streak could continue on Tuesday, as the Hornets are undefeated in the fourth game of the season under Craighead.

KUHNS A DOUBLE-DOUBLE MACHINE
Kylie Kuhns ranked No. 3 in the NCAA as a junior last season with 21 double-doubles. Kuhns has 37 now in her career after she tallied her first of the season at CSU Bakersfield on Friday. Kuhns is averaging exactly 10 points and 10 rebounds per game this year. She paced the Big Sky with 13 as a sophomore and posted two in her freshman campaign. Last season Kuhns had a double-double in all but 10 games and posted a season-long streak of 13 straight from Nov. 17 to Dec. 31.

KUHNS ON THE GLASS
In addition to leading the Big Sky in rebounding for the second straight season, Kylie Kuhns ranked No. 6 in the nation last year as a junior, averaging 11.6 rebounds per game. As a sophomore, she set the single-game school record with 23 boards in a win versus San Francisco and finished the season ranked No. 12 in the nation at 11.0 rpg. This year she is averaging 10 rebounds through two games after puling down a season-high 14 at CSU Bakersfield

A HELPING HAND
Sacramento State ranked No. 5 in the NCAA averaging 17.7 assists per game. Freshman Fantasia Hilliard led the team and ranked No. 2 in the Big Sky and No. 37 in the NCAA with 4.8 assists per game. She also became the fifth player in school history to reach 150 assists in a single season. Through three games this season, the Hornets are averaging 13 assists per game with Hilliard leading the way individually at 7.7 per game.

SCORING OFFENSE
Sacramento State has ranked No. 1 in the Big Sky Conference in scoring in each of head coach Jamie Craighead's first three seasons. Last year the Hornets ranked No. 28 in the NCAA averaging 71.7 points per game. Before that, Sacramento State averaged 70.2 points per game during the 2010-11 season and put up a whopping 79.1 points per game in 2009-10, which ranked No. 6 in the nation. The Hornets are scoring 75.0 points per game through the first three contests.

TENACIOUS D
Sacramento State set new program records in both steals and blocked shots last season. The Hornets nabbed 401 steals and ranked No. 6 in the nation at 12.9 per game. Three players on the roster (Moreno, Kuhns, Hilliard) ranked in the top-150 in the nation in steals per game. The Hornets also swatted 147 shots and ranked No. 40 in the nation at 4.7 blocks per game. Through three games this season, the Hornets are averaging 11.7 steals and 6.7 blocked shots per game.

2011-12 RECAP
Sacramento State won its first ever Big Sky Conference Tournament game last year when the No. 6 seeded Hornets upset No. 3 seeded Eastern Washington, 71-61, in the quarterfinals. To get into the tournament, the Hornets won their last four regular season games, including two over Portland State, to jump the Vikings for the sixth and final spot. Point guard Fantasia Hilliard sparked the winning streak with a buzzer-beating runner in the lane at Montana State to win, 77-76.

A WHOLE BUNCH BACK
Sacramento State lost just one starter and two total letterwinners off last season's roster. The Hornets return 80.4 percent of their points, 86.3 percent of their rebounds and 83.3 percent of their assists from a year ago. The 11 returning letterwinners have combined for 193 starts and 543 games played.